1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to an ultrasound imaging apparatus for producing an ultrasound image of a subject, and is also directed to a therapy system for treating a subject (region) located in the body of a patient with focused acoustic waves, the therapy system containing an ultrasound imaging apparatus as a locating system for the region to be treated.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Conventional ultrasound imaging systems usually produce a two-dimensional image of a subject. Leaving systems referred to as ultrasound cameras U.S. Pat. No. 5,072,722 out of consideration, the image that is produced in known systems is usually a tomogram of the subject such as, for example, a B-mode ultrasound image U.S. Pat. No. 4,526,168. Three-dimensional ultrasound images can usually be produced only with great complexity, for example by chronologically successive production of a plurality of ultrasound tomograms covering different regions of the subject from which the data for producing a three-dimensional ultrasound image are then extracted U.S. Pat. No. 5,005,579. Such a procedure is complicated and time-consuming in comparison to the standard ultrasound tomogram imaging apparatus that supplies real-time images. Therapy systems for treating subjects (regions) located in the body of a patient with focused acoustic waves therefore almost exclusively contain ultrasound imaging systems, which only supply tomograms, as the locating system.
For a more efficient treatment and a treatment that would be gentler on the patient, however, there is a need to have additional image information with respect to the subject to be treated available, which would allow a better alignment of the therapy means and the body of the patient relative to one another.